


The Love Reaper

by TinyValiance



Category: iKON (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Cupids, Fluff, Junhwan is implied, M/M, Mutual Pining, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Pining, Reapers, Short & Sweet, Supernatural Elements, something i came up with while thinking about lost love, title is inspired by the love witch but the story is nothing like it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-26 18:59:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13863969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinyValiance/pseuds/TinyValiance
Summary: Hanbin is a love reaper. All he knew was what love felt like when it was gone. That was his area of expertise. Hanbin was a sad,sadlittle man, as Yunhyeong had so kindly put it.





	The Love Reaper

**Author's Note:**

> ♥ PLEASE READ! THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME!♥
> 
> 1\. I want to make it clear that these people in the story are just characters based on real people. This is my interpretation of them. My writing does not reflect on any real people involved in this story. Please do not repost this story anywhere or post a link to this story anywhere. Tumblr is the only exception. I do not want it on Twitter, Instagram, or anywhere a member of iKon or any other kpop star in this story can see it (if they see it on Tumblr, then whatever, Tumblr feels more private). Do not send this story to them. Please keep this story safe here! Respect their privacy and mine.
> 
> 2\. WARNINGS: swearing, elements/description of death.
> 
> 3\. Please comment! No matter how long the story is up, I will always appreciate comments. I love all feedback. Nice comments are appreciated more than you know. Also, I am not perfect, I want to improve! If you think I could do something better in terms of characterization, grammar and wording (etc), please tell me.
> 
> 4\. If you are inspired by this fic please let me know in the comments what you write! I think I came up with the concept of a love reaper? I could be wrong. But regardless, it is not super extraordinary so you don't have to ask if you can use the lore. I am honoured to inspire you. Go nuts. Also yeah to answer your unasked question about the lore: wheat reapers are literally farmers fsfdljhgkck its an overlap the Magical Creatures Government has yet to sort out. So yeah wheat farmers can see reapers. It be like that sometimes.

Hanbin is a reaper. Of course, people usually do not know there is more than one kind.

There is the famous grim reaper, or infamous grim reaper, depending on your level of contentedness with mortality.

There is the wheat reaper, which, yes, is self-explanatory, a little less extraordinary than the other two.

And there is the love reaper. These are the reapers who collect a love that is ready to move onto the afterlife, to lie in memories and wash away in time and in tears.

Hanbin is a love reaper and he thinks this is the saddest job he could have gotten stuck with. He wished he could be a wheat reaper. His friend Yunhyeong got so lucky with that.

A couple sat in a coffee shop as the sun rose behind them. The girl’s hair fell over her face, the boy was sad but smiling, they were holding each other’s hand.

“This just isn’t going to work,” the girl said. Her voice was heavy with pain but light simultaneously, finally free of any burden.

“I know,” the boy said. “I don’t… feel it anymore, either.”

The girl lifted her head. She was painted gold by the morning sun and Hanbin hoped the boy would remember her like this forever. He hoped some things could stay gold.

She smiled back at the boy. “Let’s break up.”

The boy nodded. “Let’s break up.”

Hanbin sighed. He removed his hand from where he had been resting it on the boy’s back after moving on from draining the girl. He felt warm and content and unconditionally cared for, and it was the saddest feeling in the world.

Where does love go when it ends? Well, it starts off as residue, before it fades away. Their love evaporated off of Hanbin’s shoulders in a cloud of rose gold mist, swirled up to the ceiling and disappeared. A shower of silver glitter sprinkled down over the love-lost couple, but it was nothing they could see. They only felt the cold touch of a ghost on their shoulders.

Hanbin stuck his hands in his pockets and walked out of the coffee shop.

Seoul was so bright and livable in early spring, before the misemunji could settle and suffocate. The air was light today. Hanbin waltzed along the sidewalk, past people who only felt him as a rush of warm air across their arm, the faint smell of roses and gingerbread and blood. The air looked almost blue as the clear sky that stretched all around and curved with the Earth. Hanbin breathed in deeply and let it out. The smell of peach blossoms overtook his sense of smell.

Which meant—

A body crashed into him from behind, causing Hanbin to stumble forward. Arms wrapped around his stomach and pulled him upright, back onto his red converse on the sidewalk. A cheek pressed against his shoulder blade.

Hanbin placed his hands on the two hands that locked him in place. He smiled. “Hey, Bobby.”

Bobby lifted his face from Hanbin’s back and said, “ _Hiii._ ”

Hanbin turned his head to place a kiss on Bobby’s cheek. Bobby laughed and got all shy, ducking behind Hanbin again. It was funny to see how shy Bobby got. It was not so much because Bobby was a cupid, as Hanbin understood the struggle of being woefully under-qualified for a job position, but because Bobby was so affectionate on his own terms. Hanbin was not sure where he could draw the line. Hugs? Okay. Neck touches? No problem. Kisses? No way. Subtle touches? Back off. Dance with me under the moonlight? I can’t dance you sap and _haha now I’m laughing too hard to dance anyway_.

Hanbin pulled Bobby out from behind him so they could walk side-by-side. “How has your day been so far?”

“Okay!” Bobby cheered. He knew better than to ask about Hanbin’s, so instead Bobby asked, “You want to get dessert?”

Hanbin laughed. “For breakfast?”

Bobby shrugged. “Why are you such a conformist?”

“Fine,” he agreed. “But you don’t need the energy.”

They bumped shoulders as they walked amongst the people that could not see them. Or maybe the people could see them? Hanbin and Bobby were generally easy to ignore, usually going unnoticed until they got right in your face, presented themselves as _present_ and _real_ and unable to sidestep around. Hanbin was not sure what made them visible when they were visible, invisible when they were not. They just went with the flow. They just have to for some things.

On their way to the coffee shop Bobby held out a hand to catch Hanbin by his arm. “Wait,” he said. His face scrunched up, he stuck out his tongue and bit it between his teeth. He was thinking.

“Yeah,” he decided, and walked up behind a boy and shoved him, hard. The boy fell forward into a girl walking on the wrong side of the sidewalk. She gasped, dropped her phone in favour of grabbing the boy’s arms to steady him.

Eyes wide, the boy shouted, “I’m sorry!”

Bobby skipped around to be behind the girl and poked her in the butt. Her eyelashes fluttered. “Oh… it’s okay. It’s Namjong, right?”

Namjong blinked. “Chaehee? From art history class?”

Chaehee nodded quickly and smiled. She pulled her bag further up onto her shoulder. “From art history.”

They stared at each other for a moment, eyes glittering. Then Namjong gasped and picked up her phone, held it out to her with two hands and apologized. Chaehee laughed and suggested they exchange numbers.

With a smile stretching across his face, bright and wide as the sky, Bobby returned to Hanbin’s side and kept walking with him.

Hanbin scolded, “You pervert,” in regards to the butt-poke.

Bobby laughed. “Come on, let me have a little cupid fun.”

Hanbin gave a halfhearted laugh and shook his head. At least the love he reaped had found a good home.

They kept walking until they reached their destination. Hanbin felt inexplicably whole as he entered the establishment, embellished with wood and the permanent scent of coffee staining the brown panels along the floor and walls. Hanbin was not really a fan of coffee, but that was never the attraction to these places. In fact, sometimes not even the dessert was the attraction. Sometimes Bobby was sweeter.

The two ordered slices of cake with vanilla bean lattes. They sat at a table near the middle of the café and waited to be served.

Bobby leaned back in his seat, seemingly without a care in the world. Hanbin leaned forward and clasped his hands together. Bobby’s head lolled to the side as he smiled, dopey and beautiful. He was not the type of person that Hanbin would ever go for. Go figure he went and fell in love with him. Love was not Hanbin’s strong suit though, huh?

As if on cue, Hanbin spotted two people behind Bobby. He sighed.

It piqued Bobby’s interest. His eyes widened, eyebrows raised. He turned around to see the couple in question, then turned back around, slumped.

Bobby said, “Do what you need to do. I’ll guard your latte when it comes.”

Hanbin smiled lopsidedly. “And what about my cake?”

“Ah, I’ll keep that in the safest place.”

Hanbin said, “But then I’ll never see it again.”

Bobby patted his tummy and winked. “But it will be safe.”

Hanbin let out a heavy breath and got up from the table. He would be right back. He hated to drag these things out.

The man was discussing a flower shop he passed on the way over when Hanbin placed a hand on his shoulder. The man’s fake smile fell into an honest line and he said, “I don’t feel happy with you like I used to.”

Hanbin slunk around the table and placed his hand on the woman’s shoulder. She blinked sadly down at the table and said, “I feel the same way.”

Hanbin let the rest happen without him. He trudged back to his table and plopped down. By the time he got there, the love-lost couple was covered in silver sparkles, like the crumbled remains of the moon he once promised her.

The food had arrived. Bobby shoved a piece of cake into his mouth. Speaking through a garbled glob of sugar and chocolate, he said, “Sorry about that.”

Hanbin just sighed and poked at his own food. “Whatever.”

Bobby stabbed Hanbin’s cake. Hanbin whined _‘hey!’_ at the thievery, but then Bobby brought the piece of cake to Hanbin’s lips. Hanbin blinked at him, eyes wide with wonder. Bobby’s eyes were wide and expectant. Hanbin’s heart skipped a beat. He wondered if all cupids were this good at love. He wondered, more fearfully, if they were all players, if that was their nature.

Hanbin ate the piece of cake off Bobby’s fork and chewed while staring at Bobby’s eyes. Bobby seemed content enough and returned to his food. Hanbin sipped his latte and then took the first bite of his cake on his own.

They ate quietly for the most part. Bobby always knew to give Hanbin time to come back into the world after reaping. Hanbin appreciated that. He appreciated everything about Bobby, down to the aura of warmth he carried, the contentedness, the feeling he inspired in others that they were cared for. Hanbin’s empathy honed his skills in comfort but he thought it must be much nicer to never have to heal in the first place.

Bobby chugged half his latte and asked, “So what’s up?”

Hanbin shrugged and said, “The usual.” He ate a forkful of icing. It was not too sweet, it was pleasant and good. Like Bobby.

It was so easy to write poetry when in love that he no longer admired poets for doing it. Hanbin had grown fond of writing songs to keep all these feelings within. The sound of his own love was so wistful and heartfelt that Hanbin felt a physical ache in his heart at hearing it. He wanted to know the counterpart to yearning so bad.

“I’ve just been writing songs,” Hanbin admitted.

Bobby knew about this, and he smiled. “You’re good.”

Hanbin returned the compliment, “You’re not so bad.”

Bobby laughed and said, “I’m a cupid, I’m kind of born good at writing love songs. It’s rap that I’m struggling with. Want to come over and help me write?”

Hanbin gave an incredulous giggle. “Am I so cocky that you’re asking me for advice?”

There was a sparkle in Bobby’s eyes that Hanbin caught before he averted his gaze. It made Hanbin feel shy, to be gazed at. He sadly thought he would be no good at love if he ever got any, because he could not even handle a look from a cupid, whose job it was to look at everything through rose-coloured lenses. The real thing would leave Hanbin so pink he would pass out before the blood could return to his heart and beat through him again. It would be gone before he knew it was there.

All he knew was what love felt like when it was gone. That was his area of expertise. Hanbin was a sad, _sad_ little man, as Yunhyeong had so kindly put it. Fucking wheat reapers never knowing how good they have it.

“A little,” Bobby said. “It’s good though.”

“You’re a little cocky too,” Hanbin pointed out. “More than I am.”

Bobby shrugged. “No reason why I can’t hear new ideas.”

“Here’s an idea,” Hanbin said. He stuck up his middle finger. Bobby laughed. “Take it, it’s free.”

Bobby finished his latte and toyed with a loose string on his sweater. He looked at Hanbin then looked back down. Hanbin always pretended he never noticed when Bobby did that. It hurt to not feel worthy of being stared at. He saw it in too many eyes in his career.

The man and woman left the café. Hanbin lost his appetite for the last bit of his cake.

Bobby looked over his shoulder again, put the puzzle together. “I’m sorry, Bin,” he said, and he sounded so genuine.

Hanbin’s heart fluttered. He felt cared for. He felt loved.

“Whatever,” Hanbin said. He pushed his plate to Bobby. “Eat it.”

“No,” Bobby frowned. “It’s yours…”

Hanbin picked up the cake on his fork and shoved it into Bobby’s mouth. Bobby choked a little as he laughed, cupping his hand under his mouth to catch fallen crumbs. Hanbin giggled at the sight.

When Bobby swallowed, he gasped for air. A little frown creased his features. Hanbin giggled again, but he felt bad. He stood up, walked over to pat Bobby’s back. “Let’s go.”

“Yeah,” Bobby agreed. He left a tip on the tiny porcelain plate and stood up with Hanbin.

As they were walking out, Bobby stopped at the counter. It appeared two male friends were buying coffee together.

Bobby grabbed the back of their heads and pushed their foreheads together, causing them to _clunk_. The boys groaned in pain, moved apart and rubbed their heads, both questioning why the other would do that.

When they met eyes there was a different sparkle in them than before, golden and reflective. Hanbin caught the smell of peaches and wine wafting amongst the aroma of coffee.

A tiny smile played on the corner of Hanbin’s lips. No love lost, no love found, he supposed.

He remembered the day he found love with Bobby. He had just reaped a couple, two girls who were so in love they could not bear to see their relationship fall apart. One wanted to study in Japan, the other wanted to study in Canada. One girl could not come out and it was a barrier. They would lose each other to new languages and new life paths. It was a mutually agreed upon euthanasia.

Hanbin remembered it because it was the purest love he had ever touched and Bobby was the purest being in the cosmos, so it only made sense that this love was reserved for him. Hanbin held it in his heart because Bobby deserved this unconditional care, this wholehearted contentedness in mind and spirit, this pain.

With a self-satisfied smirk, Bobby said, “Let’s go?” and ushered Hanbin out the door.

Hanbin huffed through his smile and hopped onto the sidewalk. “You’re a jerk,” he said, in reference to how Bobby stuck his ‘arrow’ in the two boys back in the coffee shop. Somehow Bobby always found a new obnoxious way to help two people find each other.

Bobby laughed at Hanbin’s reaction and bounced alongside him as they walked the streets of Seoul. Hanbin never knew where he and Bobby were meant to be going. Hanbin was on coffee shop duty at this point of his career, but Bobby was not. He was on free-roam. Cupids believed that love was to be born anywhere. Life is whimsical like that, where death is not. All death is inevitable and has to be respectfully regulated. Hanbin liked this part of his job, at least; the organization that comforted his pathological perfectionism.

Bobby was as free-spirited as the wind that ruffled the curls in his hair. A cherry blossom petal zoomed through the air and landed on Hanbin’s cheek. Bobby laughed. He was in full bloom with the spring. Hanbin was the winter that would render the petal lifeless on the ground below their feet.

Bobby gently plucked the petal and blew it away. He watched it go. Hanbin averted his gaze from Bobby’s eyes, dark and deep topaz and shining as such, and stared at the ground.

Bobby nudged Hanbin. Hanbin instinctively reached out a hand to place it on the small of Bobby’s back. Bobby never minded the guidance to nowhere. They walked together like that. Buildings sheltered them in brick shields leading up to the sky and the two walked alongside them.

Hanbin figured he could pick up the slack for Chanwoo here and handle this mark; the kid was new to the job and overwhelmed. Hanbin reached out a hand and brushed against a girl walking by. She sighed. The scent of flowers evaporated off her shoulders and disappeared.

It was always sad when only one person fell out of love.

Hanbin looked to Bobby. Bobby wore a sympathetic but sad frown on his lips. Hanbin’s heart skipped a beat and squeezed in his chest, a twinge of pain felt throughout him, making him feel weak and sick all over. Bobby brushed his shoulder against a person walking by and Hanbin heard them gasp.

It was always sad when only one person fell in love.

“Come on,” Bobby said. He threw an arm around Hanbin’s shoulders. “Let’s go somewhere fun.”

They ended up in a playground, then a museum. In the museum café Hanbin did his job, and the two met up with Donghyuk, another cupid and Bobby’s friend, who excitedly did his job. They hugged Donghyuk goodbye, and then Bobby and Hanbin found a restaurant for a late lunch. They made a mandatory trip through the coffee shops in the area so Hanbin could do what he needed to do, so Bobby could do what he thought would be cute. It was always cute.

In the evening they ate street food on the side of a brick building to support their backs. Food tasted good and was a good excuse to hang out with others, so Hanbin and Bobby liked to eat often.

Across the way from where they sat, the saw Jinhwan with his friend Junhoe, the pretty faerie that gave life to nature. It was strange how Jinhwan looked like a faerie, and yet, it was his counterpart that was the actual fae. People often poked fun that Bobby was too ugly to be a cupid and Hanbin remembered the day the joke stopped being funny.

Jinhwan touched the shoulder of a young man stepping out of an office building. He gracefully and lifelessly dropped to the ground. Youth duty was rough. Jinhwan and Junhoe kept walking.

Hanbin’s blood ran cold. He supposed there were upsides to being a love reaper that being a grim reaper did not share. Lost lovers could pick themselves back up.

Junhoe pulled something out of his pocket. When he opened his palm, a small, white flower had grown. Jinhwan accepted it gently and brought it to his nose to smell.

Hanbin looked back to Bobby. Apparently Bobby had seen Jinhwan at work as well, because when Hanbin saw the boy, a look of pure horror was set on his features, a cross between nausea and mourning. His nose scrunched up. Hanbin booped it with his finger.

Bobby blinked back into reality and looked over at Hanbin. Hanbin could not help but give him a smile. It was difficult, Hanbin could tell, but Bobby smiled back.

They were a good pair, Hanbin thought. They evened each other out, like Jinhwan and Junhoe.

A baby cried in the distance and Hanbin’s heart felt warm again, which probably made him a dick, but cut him some slack, he and his grim buddies brought things to an end for a living, he liked to know something was alive and flourishing in the world. Maybe not yet, but you know, they would be soon. Hope was not lost.

They recommenced their walk through Seoul as the day grew dark. Night fell over them slowly, stars peeking out from behind an orange curtain before taking the stage.

Two people sat on a bench outside a coffee shop and Hanbin touched them both on the shoulder. Their shadowed forms glittered silver in the moonlight.

Bobby approached another couple walking out of the park around the corner. He reached out, but after sparing a glance at Hanbin, retracted his hands.

Hanbin raised his eyebrows. “What? Did you foresee a bad breakup or something? Can you even do that?”

Bobby gave a hollow laugh and shook his head. Their eyes met, and Hanbin wondered if his own eyes were glittering, if they reflected the light that Bobby exuded, if he was as fucking _obvious_ as he thought he was being. It was not fair that Bobby was light itself. Bobby was beautiful. Maybe if Hanbin could get in on some of that he could be loved back. Winning over a cupid must be impossible. You could never be special to a person who sees the heart in everyone, the love in everything and every possibility.

“No,” Bobby said. He placed a hand over his heart. “I just thought…”

He delicately placed his other hand on Hanbin’s cheek. Hanbin blinked in confusion.

Bobby sighed. “Yeah, I had a feeling. But it was worth a shot.” He dropped his hands.

Hanbin’s lips squished into a confused pout. “What was?”

“Nothing,” Bobby shook his head. He stuck his hands into his pockets and continued walking into the park. Hanbin followed him.

“No, what?” Hanbin stopped Bobby once they entered the park. They stood on a patio made of several pink stones.

Bobby sighed. He shrugged a shoulder and said, “Thought I might save the love for us this time. But I knew it was a long shot.”

Hanbin’s heart felt like it fell into the depths of an ocean that lived inside him.

Then it sprung to the surface, buoyant and pumped full to the bursting point with helium. He felt high and combustive and **_ahhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—_**

 ** _“EH?!”_** Hanbin demanded.

Bobby just jumped back, startled.

Hanbin insisted, “Are you fucking with me?”

Bobby, lips pouted and parted, asked, “What?”

“Are you _fucking_ with me?”

Bobby blinked owlishly. “I… I’d _like_ to be fucking with you.”

That **_dork_**. Hanbin grabbed Bobby’s face and pulled their lips together. Bobby was startled still at first, hands in the air, but as the kiss carried on, he slowly lowered his hands to rest on Hanbin’s waist.

They kissed and kissed until Hanbin felt like he was completely wrapped up in a blanket. Mystical beings did not get warm or cold due to the temperate without, but due to the temperature within. Bobby was the fire in his heart.

Lips pink and all kissed out, they pulled apart for air. They stayed close, swollen lips resting feather-light against each other’s. Bobby pulled Hanbin’s body closer to wrap his arms around Hanbin’s back. He clasped his hands together, locking Hanbin in place.

Hanbin smiled. He clasped his hands together behind Bobby’s neck. The moon hung over them like a disco ball.

And Hanbin asked again, “Dance with me?”

And Bobby laughed and said again, “I… I _can’t_ , Hanb—”

Hanbin placed his lips against Bobby’s again, a small peck, and placed another on Bobby’s flushed cheek. Hanbin took his iPod out of his back pocket and put on something nice, something by someone who probably thought he was a poet but put together nice enough beats for Hanbin to feel something from him. Good on him. Hanbin hoped real love found that songwriter someday. He spent many a night inventing his own happiness too. He would send out a special request.

Hanbin dropped the iPod playing softly in Bobby’s front pocket. Bobby giggled again, shyer, less nervous. He had accepted this was happening. He would have to let Hanbin get closer from this point on, after all. They swayed to the music, Bobby resting his face on Hanbin’s sweater to hide.

It must have been torture for Bobby to be a cupid, being able to help everyone fall in love but himself.

Lucky for Bobby, Hanbin was a love reaper, and this being his area of expertise, he had no expectation of ever letting this love be lost.


End file.
